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You Heard It Here: Happy Birthday

Dee J. Adams Posted on by

Since this is my birthday month – and the one year birthday of my first book, Dangerous Race on September 5th – I thought I’d tell a couple of Hollywood birthday stories.


The first is from my days working on Roseanne. Someone had had a birthday on set and Roseanne didn’t find out about it until after the fact. She was a little upset that she hadn’t known and hadn’t wished that person a happy birthday. She made an executive announcement: From now on, you people better tell me when it’s your birthday! (I may not have gotten the exact words right, but it was something to that effect.) Now, just imagine those words in her high pitch voice with a little bit of anger behind it. LOL. (She was good at making decrees like a queen of her castle might do. To my knowledge that has not changed. <G>)
Like a good employee, I mentioned that my birthday was the next day. (Good timing on my birthday’s part, I guess.) Low and behold, the next day, Rosie came to work with a gift for me. She brought me a Laura Ashley coffee table book about home decor. It was lovely. Not anything in that book would ever grace my house, but the thought was sweet and I still have the book today.
Fast forward about 15 years and the time I was working on Still Standing. I had a milestone birthday on our show night (which meant I was working a solid 11 hour day and wouldn’t really get to celebrate my birthday). Jamie Gertz, who starred in the show had the same milestone birthday as me (about 6 weeks later). I think we were both feeling the weight of that birthday so we bonded a bit. I never expected a cast member of any show I worked on to bring me a birthday present, so when Jamie gifted me with two spectacular matching diamond bracelets, I nearly fell over. They are beautiful and I think my jaw hit the floor. There may have been tears… LOL.

So those are my birthday stories. What about you? Any cool surprises or great birthday stories to share?

Comments

You Heard It Here: Happy Birthday — 12 Comments

  1. OK, well, I guess I’ll jump right in here and tell you one of mine. On my 30th milestone birthday (not saying how many years ago THAT was, LOL!), I was performing at a piano bar in a supper club, and I had specifically told everybody before-hand NOT to make a big deal out of it. However, I was kind of suspicious when I arrived for work, and the crowd seemed larger than what was usual even for a Saturday night. For a moment, I thought: “Wow, I must be getting popular!”. So, imagine my surprise when I was on break and they wheeled out a Humongous cake airbrushed with a beautiful piano on it, with all 30 candles lit!! Well, as if THAT wasn’t enough, a gorgeous hunk dressed in a tuxedo came right up to me and gave me a single red rose. To my horror, he then pulled a chair out onto the dance floor, and asked me to sit. Which is when the music started, and well…..you can guess what happened next. YES, he was a stripper, hired by the owner of the club and my now ex-husband! And he was REALLY GOOD at his job! So much for MY popularity in drawing the crowd, as they were all there to see the “act”, Duh! Now, this might sound pretty exciting, except for the fact that after I had been made into a spectacle for the crowd, I had to get back up on the stage and resume performing for them. I was both embarrassed and titillated at the same time, but I can tell you I had a very stern talk with the perps of that gag later that night! In fact, I divorced one of them, but that was much later, and is another story. LOL!

    • Hi Julie!
      I LOVE this story! What a hoot! I can imagine how embarrassing that would be, but also really fun. I don’t think I would mind a cutie stripping for me. LOL. (What husband? :))

  2. I cannot top either of your birthday stories. Mostly I try to ignore mine. When i was young my roommate at the time and I used to declare November birthday month, as we both had birthdays in the same month. We enjoyed 30 days of celebration – nothing huge, but we made every day special in some way.

    Wishing you happy birthday wishes in advance!

    • Hi Lynne!
      I love the idea of celebrating with something every day of the birthday month. Nothing like spreading out the fun. I’ve always been a fan of birthday’s but I can see me beginning to ignore them very soon in the future. LOL. Or maybe I’ll just start counting backwards!

  3. Ok, Deej. That was cold….WHAT husband indeed! Ok, it was MG. LOL! And @Lynne – I was TRYING to ignore mine too!

    • Julie!!! I meant MY husband when I said “what husband.” I KNEW which husband you were talking about! LOL. I can’t enjoy someone stripping for me TOO much or MY husband might get upset. Ah… the pitfalls of the written word.

  4. Happy, happy, September birthday! I just read your name under PAN/First sales in the
    RWR. Yay! you!
    I’m an October baby. ; ) I think rather than comment on the best birthday I’ll just say that my ex gave me a surprise birthday for my 40th and I hated the entire thing. So, from then on I convinced my kids, my family, my friends, NO SURPRISES! I do not do surprises well. : )

    • Hi Robena,
      Aw! I have to admit I loved the surprise 30th my husband threw me. Had lots of fun. But I guess I do love the good surprises. I’m a sucker for a party. LOL. And thanks…I just got my RWR a couple of minutes ago and saw the PAN column! Yay!

  5. I have wonderful birthdays, but that’s because I insist on celebrating them in outstanding ways whenever possible. Like Robena, I am not much for surprises either. I tend to plan my birthdays and they last for weeks on end. This is a decade birthday year for me. We had a big party and one of the godkids made me a video with music of my life and she acted as my official photog at my party. Her mom and I, who have been friends since 2nd grade, watched all 27 minutes of it and cried through various parts especially when pics of my dad came up. Then to top off this year of fabulousness, I am going to Hawaii at the end of the year with my sister, brother, sister-in-law, and niece and nephew. Cannot wait – booked it all today and am so looking forward to it.

    Yep, I love birthdays and for me the key to remember is that no matter what I am right now younger than I will ever be again. Some people might find that depressing, but I realized on my last decade birthday that I’d spent most of my life being not thin enough, and/or bemoaning being older. What a waste of time and energy. I now spend every birthday celebrating life. Why wait to have a party when I am dead and cannot be there? Nope, celebrate when I am alive. This is my motto.

    • Hi Maria,
      I love your motto! That is absolutely the way to celebrate a birthday. I never thought of it like you mentioned. I’ll never be this young again. I’m stealing that! Your trip to Hawaii sounds awesome! I’m thinking I need to book something like that for my future too. Have a great time!

  6. Great stories! Aren’t birthdays wonderful? One year on my special day, I was shooting on location in Port St. Lucie at the baseball training camp. There was an exhibition game first so we sat through that before we could set up. Throughout the game they flashed “Happy Birthday, Jodi” on the big scoreboard. And at the end of the game, as sunset befell us, they wheeled out a huge birthday cake and sang to me – the entire teams of the Yankees and Mets! It was pretty cool.

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